NSA mass spying undermines journalists and attorneys’ ability to work

Dozens of journalists and attorneys surveyed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch for a new report say that the United States government’s surveillance operations are eroding their ability to work.

The results of the collaborative effort between the ACLU and HRW was
published on Monday this week and contains a number of chilling
accounts from Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters and acclaimed
attorneys alike who say the US government’s spy programs have put
a damper on their professions.

After surveying 92 participants — 46 reporters, 42 lawyers and a
handful of current or former government officials — the authors
of the 126-page "With Liberty to Monitor All" study conclude that
US surveillance practices are “harming journalism, law and
American democracy” by making it increasingly difficult for
professionals tasked with keeping governments accountable and
preserving justice from accomplishing as much.

In the wake of last year’s National Security Agency disclosures,
the report found, journalists and attorneys who handle sensitive
information are changing their work habits and how they
communicate to keep personal details private and prevent
government eavesdroppers from interfering.

“Freedoms of expression and association, as well as rights to
a fair trial, are protected by the Constitution, and US officials
speak with pride of the freedom of the media to report on matters
of public concern and hold government to account for its
actions,” the paper reads in part. “Yet, as this report
documents, today those freedoms are very much under threat due to
the government’s own policies concerning secrecy, leak
prevention, and officials’ contact with the media, combined with
large-scale surveillance programs.”

Several of the people surveyed told the study’s authors that
they’ve drastically altered the way they do work in order to
elude federal investigators: US President Barack Obama’s
precedent-setting number of leak prosecutions has made national
security sources more hesitant than ever to speak with reporters,
and attorneys tasked with keeping their clients’ details safe
told the ACLU and HRW that they fear they’re being spied on as
well.

Among the chances those professionals have made to counter those
fears, the report reveals, are tactics that range from relying on
encrypted email and burner phones, to sending information through
the Postal Service instead of the web and making fake travel
plans to confuse any curious government eavesdroppers.

“I don’t want the government to force me to act like a spy.
I’m not a spy; I’m a journalist,” one prominent reporter
told the researchers.

“I’ll be damned if I have to start acting like a drug dealer
in order to protect my client’s confidentiality,” added
national security defense attorney Tom Durkin.

Nancy Hollander, the lawyer for convicted WikiLeaks source
Chelsea Manning, told interviewers that she now concludes every
professional email with a warning: “Based on recent news
reports, it is possible that the NSA is monitoring this
communication.”

“If the US fails to address these concerns promptly and
effectively,” report author G. Alex Sinha writes, “it
could do serious, long-term damage to the fabric of democracy in
the country.”